CLINTON, MASS.- The Museum of Russian Icons has named three new members––Eric Brose, William O’Neil, and Dr. Wendy Salmond—to its Board of Trustees. “We have ambitious goals for the museum, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with our new trustees to help us expand the appreciation and understanding of Russian culture," said Executive Director Kent dur Russell. “We are indebted to our board members, both new and returning, for their commitment and vision to keep the Museum a vibrant, innovative, and leading institution in the study and exhibition of Russian Icons.”

Eric Brose, a resident of Boylston, Massachusetts, is a Financial Advisor for Infinex Investments located at Fidelity Bank. A financial advisor since 1999, Brose received his BA from George Washington University and his MBA from Tulane University. He is the Chair of the Finance Committee for the Town of Boylston, Chair of Governance for Music Worcester, President and Treasurer of the Brose Hie Hill Foundation, a Board Member of the Worcester World Affairs Council and a Vestry Member and Chair of the Investment Committee at All Saints Church in Worcester.

William (Bill) O’Neil, a resident of Lancaster, Massachusetts, is an attorney with Philbin and O’Neil specializing in Estate and Trust Planning and Administration, Medicaid Planning, Commercial and Residential Real Estate, Probate (including Divorces and Guardianship), Bankruptcy, Landlord/Tenant, Tax, and Civil Litigation. He received his BS from Bentley University and JD from New England School of Law.

Wendy Salmond, an art history professor at Chapman University in Orange, California, is a scholar of Russian and early Soviet art, architecture, and design. She is particularly interested in exploring the intersection of diverse cultural traditions in Russia and in the formation of national identity. She has written and lectured extensively on the Arts and Crafts movement, on Art Nouveau, and on Russian modernism. Her current project is a book tracing transformations in the perception and function of icons in Russia, from objects of devotion to works of art.

Professor Salmond, who received her MA and PHD at the University of Texas at Austin, has been a visiting curator at Hillwood Museum and Gardens in Washington DC and a guest curator of exhibitions at Hillwood (Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs, 2004) and The New York Public Library (Russia Imagined, 1825-1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev, 2006). She is a prolific translator of texts on Russian art and culture, and has edited volumes on the sculptor Sergei Konenkov, the Bolshevik sales of Russian art in the 1920s and 1930s, and the reception of Art Nouveau in Russia. She is the editor of the Museum of Russian Icons’ Journal of Icon Studies.

EXHIBITIONS CURRENTLY ON VIEW

Icons for Our Time: Orthodox Art from Around the World
Through April 3, 2022

Icons for Our Time, guest curated by Dr. Clemena Antonova, celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the Museum’s founding with an exhibition of fifteen icons by some of the most important contemporary icon painters from around the globe. New works by artists from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Japan, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, the UK and the US have been specially commissioned for this anniversary exhibition. In addition to engaging audiences visually, the exhibition offers a multi-sensory experience for visitors to explore the icon tradition in a recreated sacred space unique to each icon’s country of origin.